{"items": [{"author": "Rachel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/348666955210723?comment_id=348668691877216", "anchor": "fb-348668691877216", "service": "fb", "text": "I think you should clarify what type of dancing you mean. I assume you mean contra, or maybe any style where the music is provided by more than one musician...", "timestamp": "1343589477"}, {"author": "Rachel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/348666955210723?comment_id=348668768543875", "anchor": "fb-348668768543875", "service": "fb", "text": "...because nyckelharpa is pretty fabulous to dance to for Swedish dancing :-)", "timestamp": "1343589498"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/348666955210723?comment_id=348670051877080", "anchor": "fb-348670051877080", "service": "fb", "text": "@Rachel: edited post to specify contra; sorry! I don't have a good idea of what makes good music for Swedish dancing.", "timestamp": "1343589948"}, {"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/348666955210723?comment_id=348681288542623", "anchor": "fb-348681288542623", "service": "fb", "text": "There's more to it, but in short: I disagree, although I agree some of the time. At the heart, it sounds like you subscribe to a certain set of beliefs about dance music, and having the instruments sound like themselves (bagpipes, nyckelharpa) and have the full range of expression (piano, guitar) is less important to you than having a clear, un-muddied sound that's easy to mic. I happen to disagree with those priorities to some degree, but I think they're largely personal preference.
Think about how passionately dancers respond to didgeridoos. Whether played rhythmically or as a drone, people love them, and their resonance doesn't detract.
I have danced, happily, to a single bagpipe; a piano played in Romantic style; a chorus of 150 fiddle players; bands with multiple heavily-processed instruments; bands with no acoustic instruments at all; bands that draw from all these categories. They all have their benefits and their disadvantages, and I think one is bound to find unhappiness in looking for one size that fits all.
Looking at the instrument characteristics case (pipes, nyckelharpa), I would argue that a bagpipe without drones does not sound like a bagpipe. It sounds beautiful, but it's not in tune with its essential nature. Presenting it in an altered form (no drones) is, to some degree, like the difference between whole wheat flour and bleached white flour: made of the same thing, but something fundamentally different.
That said, the sonic mud argument is important, so my usual compromise in dances is that I play my tenor drone but not my bass drone. This seems to give some of the character without contributing to low-end muddiness.
Looking at the technique case (piano, guitar, etc.), there's a different sound that comes from playing with sustain, and I think it's a valuable tool to have in the performance arsenal. Like most things, it works best when you flavor and season with it rather than making a whole meal from it. There are few tricks that work all the time. In particular, certain kinds of sustained builds (there's that word) are hard to do without the volume increase and tonal character of a sustained note.
I think we will all agree that holding the piano pedal down and leaving it there is a bad choice. But I love listening to pianists who use pedal, because it changes the sound in ways that interest me.", "timestamp": "1343592920"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/348666955210723?comment_id=348687321875353", "anchor": "fb-348687321875353", "service": "fb", "text": "@Hollis: \"having the instruments sound like themselves and have the full range of expression is less important to you than having a clear, un-muddied sound that's easy to mic\"
My goal is music that people have a great time dancing to. Everything else (phrasing, instrument choice, style) comes off of that.
\"Think about how passionately dancers respond to didgeridoos. Whether played rhythmically or as a drone, people love them, and their resonance doesn't detract.\"
Kind of. It depends whether they're being used as a core instrument or as a color instrument. An instrument you add in at the end to bring up the energy can play single note drones and be awesome, and this is what I'm currently going for with trumpet. But for a main instrument (ex: band with hammered dulcimer playing pretty much full time melody or a guitar player who plays open chords without muting) my experience is that a droney sound rarely works as well as a rhythmic punchy one.
\"certain kinds of sustained builds (there's that word) are hard to do without the volume increase and tonal character of a sustained note\"
No argument from me on this.", "timestamp": "1343594220"}]}